After a walk through the city streets of Grim, Vergil arrived back at Scarlett's safe house. As he entered, he could only see the woman, who called herself 'The Vessel' working with a strange green concoction, that bubbled and fizzed every so often. He quietly entered the room and sat down on the chair before engaging in conversation.

"Morning Vessel". He politely asked. "You wouldn't happen to know where Scarlett is do you?" He further added.

The vessel had had a pretty uneventful day alone. There was an explosion or fire or two, but they were manageable. She'd melted some more cutleries which was nice.Then came the note. It was obvious who sent it. Even if it hadn't appeared in a puff of smoke right on the table the vessel was working at, in a room she'd never been to before. The message was simple. We're ok, you don't need to worry.We're sure you're tough enough to have made it out but we'd appreciate the conformation.You don't need to worry about how to contact us. Just right you reply on anything and reseal the letter. The wax mark is runic so it'll find its own way back to us. We just want to know you're ok.She'd left the note on the table. It was filed under ignore for now. She didn't want to think about it now.Probably should have destroyed it (the acid would have worked fine.) She turned to see new people."Oh she's upstairs, asleep."

"Well its more an interesting one, but the meaning still applies, what is your actual name? It can't just be The Vessel. Vergil asked nervously, ending with him saying her name in a mystified manner whilst gesturing.

"Very well then". Vergil replied with. "The only reason why I asked was that you remind of a girl I met a few years back called Verona, and I was wondering if it was okay if I called you that, since I didn't know if The Vessel was your real name, or just a nickname you picked up". He then quickly noticed a lone sword lying underneath a window.

Telnor- GrimTelnor stumbled along the street yawning. Its been such a long day. Maybe I should get some rest at a nearby inn. Telnor dragged his wary body along until he came to a inn called The Ivy. It was warn and slightly run down but all Telnor wanted was to get some sleep. He opened the door into a rustic front room. A single old man sat behind a desk. "You'll be wanting a room then. Its 50 Kiel for the night. 60 Kiel if you want breakfast in the morning," the old man said as a matter as a fact. Telnor reached into his pocket and pulled out 60 Kiel. "Room six is free. Up the stairs and at the end of hallway," the innkeeper gave Telnor the key. Telnor went up the stairs, unlocked his door. As he entered, he went to unbuckle his sword but there was nothing there. He frantically checked his belt for his sword but there was nothing there. Then he remembered that he had left back as Scarlet's hideout. I'm going to have to get it back in the morning,

Sighing Telnor sat on the bed and removed his boots and put his daggers on the ground. Lieing down he closed his eyes and fell asleep almost instantly.

In the morning light shown brightly through the window. Telnor squinted and blocked it with his arm. He rose up from the bed, stretched and let out a loud yawn."A good night sleep. Good for what ever ails ya," Telnor said to himself. Pulling on his boots and strapping his daggers to his legs he made his way downstairs. He sat down at one of the tables in the front room and ordered simple eggs. He finished up quickly, handed the key back to the innkeeper, along with ten extra Kiel.

Walking outside he watched the hustle and bustle of the street. He turned down the street to make his way back to Scarlet's hideout. As he walked he heard smalls parts of conversation from the crowd. Most of it had to do with the events at Harold's Estate last night. Rumors where everywhere. One person would say it was the Mage Hunters, another would say it was the mages themselves preparing for a total uprising. Others said it was the Red Stains and others said it was the Steel Hearts doing. One even said it was the Dark Gods preparing to take over the world. Telnor listened to each rumor knowing the truth. It was that Tear woman and whoever she was working with or for. Eventually he made his way to Scarlet's hideout. He stood in front of the door and knocked.

"Morning already?" Yawn The Vessel was awake again."Oh hey, your back." It was that guy she travelled with; someday she'd remember their names."Did you get done what you needed to do?Actually thinking about it I'm pretty hungry. Anyone here know show to cook?"

Lucian was captivated by the rising flames that raged vehemently in the foreground; his eye's being drawn in by the beautiful dance of red, orange and yellow that masked the silhouette of their target at the inferno's core. In the corner of his tunnelled vision was the black outline of his companion, Vincent, rising swiftly from his prone position while muttering some curse beneath his breath. The buckle bound Hunter's left arm was swaying with each one of his strides, it had either broken in the blast or been pulled from the socket, hopefully the latter; while his right brandished a razor of deep midnight black.

"Pretty light show, but it'll drain him dry if he keeps this up. A two man assault would be wiser than running at him crippled." Lucian had dealt with mages like this before; so proud of their power, as if nothing could stop them from accomplishing whatever selfish or narcissistic end to which they strive. These we're Grey's absolute favourite type of people to kill, watching one's hubris die in the blink of an eye was something magical in it's own right.

"Let's finish this." Lucian patted his partner on the right shoulder and charged towards his opponent, still hidden within the great cage of fire. The sound of Lucian's heel clashing with the cracked cobblestone rose high above the roars of fire and bounced around the walls of the courtyard. The distance quickly dwindling between the three figures with Lucian leading the front, he had expected the magical flames to have died down a due to the exertion of holding such a powerful spell for such a prolonged period, but unfortunately this was not the case.

"Don't worry, I have an Idea" A phrase that had brought an end to many, friend and foe alike, slipped from the lips of Lucian as some sort of reassurance for the unsavoury situation they had found themselves in. The swirling flames were mere metres away from the hunters who, against all human instinct, showed no signs of stopping their assault. The one in the lead reached beneath the long flowing black cloth that masked his upper body and rummaged through a cache fastened to rear of his belt, withdrawing a black, course sphere about the size of a human fist. The leading hunter threw the ball into the centre of the flames and almost in an instant a gaping maw appeared in the mages defence, the mystical fires parted.

Lets see if you like this, Mage. A gift from the alchemists in 'Ferela'

Lucian watched with great amusement as the Mage's face transformed from a visage of smug satisfaction to a vile concoction of bewilderment and fear. The weapon Lucian had used was a prototype the Mage Hunters had been developing for quite some time; a 'bomb' that disperses magic. From what Lucian was told, the device was made from two layers, A centre that housed the gunpowder used to create a small explosion and a 'shell' made out of Haladium dust held together by an adhesive. The inner section would detonate, the heat would denature the adhesive and the force would disperse the grains which would proceed to absorb the magic.

"Now, you die!" Lucian launched himself at the mage at the epicentre of the broken flame barrier. Lucian was hoping that surprise and fear would work to his advantage and he'd be able to take the mage down in one quick slash, sadly this was not the case. As the mage hunter drew closer the Target broke out of his stupor and channelled a blast of Electrical Magic into his fist amplifying the speed and power, sending Lucian flying backwards and skidding across the ground.

When Lucian was sent flying, Vincent managed to duck underneath him, and bring up his readied sword to aim a slash at the Mage's now exposed body. The Mage ducked back just enough to avoid his chest being torn open, but not far enough that he was unscratched. Vincent's blade managed to catch the Mage's arm and give him a nasty scratch that would most likely leave a scar. The Mage didn't appear too happy however, delivering a punch much like the one he had given to Lucian, and sending Vincent flying back into one of the buildings walls. Vincent bounced from the wall and landed in a heap on the ground a few feet away from Lucian, his sword stuck firmly in the ground a few feet away from his head.

"Dammit Lucian, they never said this guy was good. Let's stop playing around and finish him." Vincent said, gritting his teeth and trying to ignore the throbs in his already injured shoulder.

"Yeah. I'm here for my sword," Telnor strolled over and picked it up. He pulled it out of his sheath and inspected it. The blade was steel, marred with a few scratches ran along the blade. The hilt was also a plain steel and the hilt was wrapped in a black leather. Telnor swung it around a few times to get the feel of it again. He re-sheathed and buckled it to his belt.

"Yeah. I know to do a little cooking. Picked up a few things here and there," he commented as he made his way to the kitchen.

Lucian's body was enveloped by a wave of agony spreading from the scorch mark at the centre of his chest, the electricity had discharged through his clothes into the flesh leaving a scar burned directly onto the skin. Lucian drew his left hand and slammed his palm on the cold stone floor, he then repeated his action with his right, while then proceeding to slowly arch his body upwards until he caught the image of his target. Lucian first caught a glimpse of the expensive leather boots that rose about halfway up the mage's calf, then the white outline of oriental styled trousers against the tan and scarlet tails of his coat. Beneath the heavy trench-coat that rested firmly on his shoulders was a guided tabard dyed the same crimson hue of his over garment. Everything about their target shouted 'Arrogance', and Lucian had grown tired of toying with his prey.

"He's just like all the other Mage's I've killed." Lucian's smile had returned to his scarred and pale visage, etched onto his face like a madman. He brushed his hand against his chest and let another burst of pain course through his body, then again, and again, and again until the twitches and spasms that shot through every muscle came to a halt. Lucian took a great deal of pleasure in seeing the sly grin on his target's face die when the man he should have just killed picked himself up from the ground and dusted himself off.

"We'll finish this quick. Get ready with your blade; I'm going to be the distraction." Lucian placed both his hands behind his back and with a slow metallic song he withdrew two black daggers from beneath his garb. The blades were single edged and about the length of his forearm. The razor was flecked with black specks that blended perfectly into the metalwork. The hexagonal hilt extended just an inch from the base of his grasp and was made out of steel wrapped in black leathers, strangely enough the weapons both lacked any form of guard to protect the fingers during combat. Lucian spun the magnificently crafted, twin knives between his fingers while his partner was reading his midnight longsword, slashing it through the air as if preparing to land the perfect slice.

The mage's features crunched like a snarling pup as the black cloaked hunters, that had dared challenged him, stood idly playing with their toys,. A wash of red spread subtly across the olive skin of the mage, an indicator to the pit of rage that was brewing behind those brown serpent-like eyes. Growing tired of awaiting his attackers the mage clasped his hands together and focused his magic, with his left he ignited the the inferno of Fire Magic while with his right he surged the bolts of Thunder Magic. As he slowly drew the two hand's apart a stream of red and orange lightning stringed the two together. When they just beyond the shoulders reach the Mage flicked both his hands in unison and the flame coloured lightning contorted and shifted into a two handed blade made of crimson lightning. With both hands the mage grabbed the handle of the claymore and adopted a fighters stance, the ever shifting weapon held comfortable in his grasp.

The moment the Mage had finished summoning his weapon the hunters put an end to their lollygagging and leapt into battle. Lucian had taken the lead once again with Vincent keeping a fair distance behind him. The sound of their footsteps resonating it perfect unison atop the cold stone courtyard. The mage had adopted his guise of hubris once more and was poised to attack; what the mage wasn't aware of was, that in that brief period of rest, the hunter's had already established a plan to end the battle. In the south, the Hunter's of the region developed a technique known "Silent Song", An incredibly difficult form of training that was taught to only the most exceptional of Mage Hunters. The technique involved the use of a series of empty swings or movements that would be used as a form of communication between two individuals, thus allowing the hunters to quickly conjure plans of attack or pass on information about an opponent.

As the hunter's drew ever closer the Mage unleashed a volley of swings upon them, each thrust or slash from his mighty magical blade sending an arc of lightning and flames at his rapidly approaching enemies. The first crescent was vertical and was flying straight towards the scarred figure taking the lead, It looked almost as if the attack had made contact but mere seconds before the attack hit he cartwheeled to the left, losing none of his momentum. The second swing was horizontal and launched a wide arc that reaped anything in it's path. The hunter in the lead rolled forward and propelled himself with his hands over the attack, landing perfectly on his feet while the second performed an upwards slash with his terrifying black longsword carving the magical attack in two. Vertical, Horizontal, Diagonal, it didn't matter! The two hunter's were drawing closer and closer with none of his attacks even managing to scratch them.

Lucian was beaming with excitement, the onslaught of attacks were each becoming more savage than the last, a sign that his prey was beginning to falter. Left, right, up, down; it didn't matter what way he wanted to attack as long as he and Vincent could see the direction the blade swung they could predict the path of attack and avoid it. Lucian spun the blade in his left hand once, giving the silent direction for Vincent to fall back and give Lucian the moment he needed to set up the kill.

"Do you know why you're my favourite type of person to kill?" Lucian had closed the gap between himself and the mage and was readying to engage in close quarters combat. The Mage swung his hulking weapon of pure lightning and clashed with a parry from Lucian's two dagger, the black flecks of haladium smelted into the blades providing just enough repulsion to keep the attack from snapping his weapons. The mage fainted backwards and this time opted for an upwards strike. However, Lucian managed to counter the attack by gracefully side stepping the attack and disengaging the trajectory with a sudden slash. Knowing the hunter was merely toying with him, the mage proceeded to unleash a devastating string of slashes, stabs, chops and swings, each either being deflected, reflected, parried or dodged.

Malice seethed from every pour of the mage as the battle changed from a delicate display of two fighters intertwined in the dance of combat, to the rabid swipes of a frustrated animal trying to kill something that was well beyond their comprehension, and he was the animal. The hunter was laughing throughout the assault, he showed no signs of fatigue or fear, even the attack from before, that should of crushed his ribcage, appeared to have been nothing but a futile gesture.

"Why won't you die!" Screamed the mage as he, in a fit of uncontrollable rage, threw his weapon like a javelin in the vein attempting to catch the black clad warrior off guard. Lucian predicted the attack and jumped over the projectile of lightning, he pulled his body into a somersault letting the blade fly underneath him and as he uncurled in mid air he cast his two dagger at his target, pinning him in place by stabbing straight through the mages expensive shoes and into the ground.

"Good Question. You see... I can't die. This entire world revolves around me, I'm it's centre, it's creator. If I were disappear; this world would go along with me." Lucian mused, taking a great deal of pleasure in the contours of pain that emerged from their targets brow.

"Now you can answer my question. Do you know why you're my favourite type of person to kill?" Lucian was now standing just under arms-reach from the crimson mage with a face alight with fury. Before Lucian could hear his answer the mage made one last ditch effort in trying to kill Lucian. Both his hands were ignited with lighting and being thrust left and right. Lucian dodged the first, then the second and by the time the third had come he was gone. Lucian had grabbed the Mage's arm and using all his acrobatic skill launched himself upwards into a handstand atop the targets shoulders.

"It's because you're so beautifully amazed when you die, like you think nothing could kill you but me." Lucian's poncho fell from his shoulders and draped over the entire upper body of the Mage, masking him from the visage of his own impending doom. Vincent, who had been preparing for the signal, began sprinting towards the target as soon as he was pinned by Lucian's daggers, his black blade drawn ready for one mighty swing to end the battle quick and clean. As the cloak fell from his partners shoulders and blocked out their opponents vision Vincent seized the opportunity and carved the Mage in two, slashing through flesh, bone and Lucian's poncho.

"I'll go see if Scarlett is awake, and if she wants anything. Won't be a minute". Vergil replied as he saw Telnor heading towards the kitchen. He left his seat and headed upstairs, when he arrived, he knocked on the bedroom door.

"Hello? Scarlett? Just to let you know Telnor is doing a spot of cooking, I was just wandering if you wanted anything. Hello?". Vergil asked, but received no reply. "She must be still asleep. We'll let her slumber a little while longer." Vergil thought to himself as he headed back down the stairs.

"I wouldn't make too much noise Telnor, Scarlett is still asleep. I think I'll just sit outside for a while." He called into the kitchen, where pots and pans could be heard. "On the roof" he muttered under his breath as he exited the place. He then proceeded to climb the wall of the safehouse, and perched himself next to the chimney that was positioned near the window.

"Best someone act as a lookout, don't want the guard catching us, then again the only thing they could catch is a cold." Vergil told himself as he sat down, backed propped against the chimney, right leg lazily hanging over the window as he looked over the streets of Grim. He laughed as he made that remark.

Soon afterwards his mind began to drift back to Tear.

"Where are you? I'm sorry if I have caused you pain through the loss of your master, Sera. But just give me some form of sign, at least let me know that your alright". He called out, knowing that no one heard him.

Vincent straightened up, and wiped the blood off his blade, turning around just as the sickening crunch of torn flesh and bone fell down against the cobblestone. Vincent wiped his blade off on the hem of his cloak, making sure it was clean before putting it back into his sheath. It felt good to have ended another Mage, but even though their target was dead, they had both sustained some injuries. The smell of burnt flesh drifted around both Vincent and Lucian, their flesh having been burnt by the Mage's initial attacks. Vincent began walking away from the wreckage of the carriage and the corpses of their target and his driver.

"Lucian, how bad are your injuries?" Vincent asked, trying to push his arm back into place but with no success. The most Vincent accomplished was an excruciating pain in his left arm, which Vincent immediately regretted.

"There is a Mage Hunter outpost in Grim, I say we head there and tend to our injuries. Then we can go meet up with that women from earlier."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll keep it down," replied Telnor as cut up vegetables using one of his knifes. He lit the stove and put on some water to boil. He went down to the cellar and came back up with a large piece of meat. He sliced it up into small pieces and dropped them into pot, followed by the vegetables. He cleaned his knifes, pulled out a whetstone and began to sharpen them, stopping occasionally to stir the pot. After about an hour he took the pot off the stove and brought into the main room.

The vessel was quick to come for food (She'd be offended if you pointed it out though). "This looks pretty good."She sat down."Where did you learn to cook?"She got herself some vegetables; she recognised pretty much most of them. "What are those?" But there were ones she didn't.

After an hour up on the rooftop, Vergil didn't see anyone of interest, however, he could smell something coming from the kitchen beneath him. "Telnor must have finished cooking, it has a rather pleasant aroma, I shall have to investigate." Vergil thought to himself.

He decided to jump down from the rooftop, carefully positioned so he wouldn't suffer any damage. When he landed, he rolled so the force of impact was dispersed. As he got up, he noticed that the wounds he had suffered were healed, so he removed the bandages, and headed into the safehouse, whose door was opened to let out some of the heat from cooking.

"The coast is clear in case anyone is interested." Vergil called as he entered the building. He then sat down and started to juggle some of his throwing knives, catching them between his fingers, and then subtly flicking them back into the air.

"Clear from who exactly?"Oh it was that guy she'd healed. She still had the energy from that actually. Hopefully there'd be an outlet eventually. Otherwise it might be a tab problematic. "So the wounds have healed well?"

"Just making sure no one was trying to find us after what had happened yesterday, and yeah, me arm feels good as new. The name is Vergil by the way." He replied to The Vessel whilst catching a throwing knife in-between his thumb and forefinger.

"My dad. We were on the move a lot when I was kid and didn't always have the luxury of being able to afford restaurants so we would make our own food." Telnor sat down. "Just the usual. Carrots, potatoes, leaks. Stuff like that." Telnor eyed the throwing knifes. "You're pretty good with those."

"Thank you for the compliment Telnor". Vergil replied with after catching a throwing knife in his left hand. He then placed two of them back in his knife belt, whilst twirling the third in-between the fingers of his left hand and putting his left foot onto a empty chair next to him.

"It takes alot of practice to perfect the art of throwing them. In fact I'm able to kill a man, dressed in full armour, right in between the eyes, from about forty to fifty feet away. Of course, I generally use them to slow or stun a target, meaning I can get close with this...".

Vergil carried on saying, as he caught the knife in mid-air without looking. He then triggered his hidden wrist blade on his left arm.

Telnor- Safehouse- Grim Telnor shuffled his feet, loosening the straps of that held his daggers. In one swift motion he jerked his right leg up quickly, sending the dagger up quickly. He caught it by the tip of the blade and threw it centimeters away from Vergil's head. As he was doing that he jerked his left leg up, grabbed that dagger by the handle and pointed it at Vergil.

After witnessing the display, Vergil clapped slowly, making it so that each individual clap could be heard.

"Nice trick". Vergil remarked, after which he chuckled slightly. "It had the right blend of athleticism and fluidity, with a little work, that maneuver could become very effective." He further added, then shifted his gaze to The Vessel.

"Quite true, quite true indeed, but sometimes, it is nice to be a little debonair, a little artistic flair." Vergil told her in a suave manner, then returned to Telnor.

Scarlett let out a cry to the empty room as she suddenly woke from her dreaming in a cold sweat. Knife drawn in defence she had leapt out of bed to face an unseen enemy before realising that she was alone and still in the bedroom of her Grim safehouse. Scarlett dropped the knife on her bedside table and collapsed back down onto the soaked sheets. Unable to remember the nightmare that had taunted her she instead resided to the troubled thoughts brewing in the back of her mind. Dismissing them as currently unimportant she closed her eyes.

She ignored Vergil who came knocking a while later. Instead of replying to the voice behind the door Scarlett remained quiet, half-awake, listening to the noise of the world with her gift. There had been little of interest and so Scarlett had found her own thoughts re-emerging, breaking the concentration it required to map the sound. She had been watching the dust, illuminated by the shafts of bright light spilling through the half closed blinds, spiral around the air before vanishing as it crossed from the light to the darkened bedroom. Until today not a soul had known about the existence of this safehouse and as such Scarlett felt as safe as one could feel in these dark and turbulent times. Even with the strange and unexpected guests downstairs.

Rising slowly from the bed Scarlett walked over to a large metal jug full of cold water and poured some into the long tin bath. She sighed at the lack of hot water but decided that been clean was overall, a more important priority. One bath and a hair wash later she dressed in a fresh set of her personal leather armour from the wardrobe and walked downstairs to join the others just in time to see the showboating. Rubbing her damp hair which hung down either of her face with her fingers she scoffed.

""Nice trick". Vergil remarked, after which he chuckled slightly. "It had the right blend of athleticism and fluidity, with a little work, that manoeuvre could become very effective."

"Idiots." Scarlett remarked out loud. Realising too late she might have been better keeping that one in her head.

"That's impressive, I can usually handle twenty or so by myself, then again, I prefer not to kill them out right; it makes for a more interesting challenge. But as I say that, I remember that I occasionally pack quite powerful explosives for occasions where there are large groups which would be difficult to avoid. That's when I tend to use the environment to even the playing field". He replied with.

Telnor- Safehouse- Grim "And a fine hello to you too," Telnor said, "Food is ready if you are hungry." Telnor got up and retrieved his dagger from the other side of the room. He slid both of them back in to their holds and tightened the straps again."And you might want to be careful out there. The district is in an uproar. Rumors are flying everywhere and guards are probably going to start questioning any survivors of the party," he looked at Vessel, "And I'm sure we left an impression on someone."

"You didn't wake me. And if you want to throw away your lives then by all means, be my guest, rely on your little toys and fancy tricks but someday, gods forbid, you all might actually grow up and start to take things seriously for once. One day you all here will grow old, like me, and you'll come to regret the life you lived, and the choices you made along the way. So start to act like the adults you are and realise the danger we are all in."

There seemed to be a real anger driving her words and it showed in the expression on her face. Scarlett grabbed some food in a bowl and sat down eating slowly.

"Vergil was up until now. And we may be showboating right now but I can handle myself. I'm the others can too. We all know whats going on. And you probably would have died if none of us had been there last night!" Telnor's face contorted with rage, "AND YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH AND WHAT I'VE LOST! SO DON'T TELL ME TO GROW UP! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" Telnor breathed heavily as he looked at her through eyes of red.